RIGHT IN TIME FOR THE IMPENDING FIRST DAY OF SUMMER, the vegetable garden is at that precipitous moment: Suddenly, production rate has gone from little early spring surprises gobbled up in delight, to more but still manageable, to—uh-oh!—an impending onslaught you can’t keep up with, with more, more, more to come. Seems like the best book giveaway right now would offer my favorite references on canning, preserving, freezing—all the ways to put up the harvest for delicious future reference. A roundup of my own tactics, and two chances to win “Stocking Up III,” “Putting Foods By” and the USDA guide to home canning:
You can win one of two, three-book sets that I’ve purchased to share as prizes—no, not my old food-splattered copies, above, but new ones. Promise! All you have to do to have a chance in the truly random drawing (I’ll use the tool at random [dot] org to pick a winner) is comment below, and be a subscriber to my email newsletter. All the details are at the end of this post.
Your comment should simply tell us what you like to put up for later from your garden or the farmer’s market—and it can be as simple as a sentence or include a recipe or a link to one; up to you.
Tips and Tricks:
Immediate ideas and tips on coping with the harvest can be had from these articles:
- What’s in My Freezer at Harvest Time: a Roundup of Ideas
- Making Pesto: Garlicky Green Ice Cubes
- Growing and Storing a Year of Parsley (good for many other green herbs, too)
- Dan Koshansky’s Hand-Me-Down Refrigerator Pickles
- Vegetable Curry-in-a-Hurry
- ‘Love Apple’ Sauce (Tomato!), and Real Applesauce
- All my recipes and cooking-related posts to date
- All my posts to date on growing and using vegetables, fruits and herbs
Elsewhere, sound, free information on food preserving:
- The National Center for Home Food Preservation has online help and pdf-style fact sheets and bulletins that may have the answers you need.
- Purdue University’s pdf publications on food safety, including topics like freezing fruits and vegetables, jams and jellies, and much more. Scroll down to the publications links list.
How to Enter:
Entries close midnight Thursday, June 24, with winners announced Friday.
For a chance in the truly random drawing (I’ll use the tool at random [dot] org to pick the two winners) you must comment below and be a subscriber to my email newsletter.
It’s easy to sign up for the latter if you haven’t already, and free, and here’s what it’s like in case you are worried I’m a spammer.
After I draw the winner, I’ll verify that he or she is, in fact, a subscriber…if not, I’ll draw again.
I know, that Margaret, she always wants something, right? Well, not really—there are no ads here or anything; I’ve done this for free for more than two years. (Truth be told, I do it for my mental health, and you are all part of the therapy.) But I love seeing our community grow, and the newsletter helps make that happen. Now back to the garden, and the kitchen…
I can tomatoes, apple butter, dandelion jelly, and violet jelly. This weekend I’ll be canning lots of potato leek soup, as well as beef stew. :)
I love your website …. I love gardening and canning. My favorite obviously it tomatoes and than I do like to make jams and relishes. MaryAnne
Funny enough, the ‘quiz’ bit made me prompt in, so that you know that you have (at least) one follower at this side of the world…
The only thing I can is the quinces from the 2 trees we planted in the garden; the procedure has no tricks and the result is really amazing, not just for us, but for anyone visiting that can take a jar back home after visiting.
Best regards and thanks for your inspirational ideas
A.Castresana
Madrid (Spain)
I’d love some updated recipes for canning. My book is 30 years old!
You have so-much on your web site!!
As I have gotten older, I think more of the wonderful foods my grandmother and mother used to make. One of them, which I plan to can this summer, is “tourshi”, Armenian pickled vegetables, like nothing you can buy in any store.
I used to make applesauce quite often in the past, and I now freeze the summer berries. I also dry the herbs and bring them in for winter. I have never canned, although I have always wanted to. he books would be a great way for me to get started! Plus, the local kids have an interest also, now that they are a little older! Yay!
I have a plan to make ketchup, mustard, and relish to give away as a canned trio at Christmas!
I’ve canned a few things – but have been scared on what can and can not be canned. I’ve been meaning to buy a true canning book but here’s my chance to win one…or 3! Would love to win these and am a subscriber! Love your blog!
I love to can my beautiful organically-grown heirloom tomatoes in a variety of ways. Whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes. Salsa, marinara sauce, tomato jam. Vegetable soup with fresh locally-grown veggies from the farmers market. All of these provide a wonderful fresh taste of summer throughout the year. I would like to expand my canning reportroire by ‘putting up’ more of the veggies from the farmers market. The books would be very helpful. Thanks for the opportunity to enter your contest! I love your website and share your love for gardening.
I have totally been motivated by this site! One sure thing that I make every year is fig jam. This season I started with pickled beets. I find I need to get a jelly bag and start getting creative, I have a plum tree just starting to color up and blackberries starting as well.
I love the picture of the freezer, it looks overloaded like mine!
I love to make homemade jam. I use apricots from my backyard tree (but not this year, due to weather and squirrels), and strawberries from a farm stand down the street.
This year, I’m also going to try to make pickles. I *HAVE* to make my Great Aunt Neva’s bread & butter pickles with the vine I’m growing in the backyard. I may also try some sweet pickles or dill pickles. It’ll depend on how many pickling cucumbers I get.
This is my first year gardening as an adult, although growing up we’d spend summers picking and canning – peaches, pears, nectarines, jams, jellies, pickled vegetables, crabapples, applesauce, even pie filling.
I’m hoping to learn how to do small batch canning – maybe a bit of heirloom tomato sauce, to try my hand.
I make pickled beets using grandma Annie’s recipe, from Ukraine.
I grow a garden for my family and love canning. In canned food there are little preservtives and dyes. I also bake my own bread and make my own flour from my flour mill. A good canning book would be handy. Im always looking for new ways of doing thngs. canning isnt always easy I do it really early in morning or late at night if i have to be in the field but i find a way. Love your farm.
This year my husband and I have already started raspberry jam (seems earlier than normal this year), and we’ll definitely be making tomato sauce. I *hope* to try making ketchup (from Jamie Oliver) and caramelized onions (http://blog.gardeners.com/2009/09/sweet-fix-for-onions.html). I would love some new books for even more ideas!
This will be my first year ‘putting by’ and I’ve planted extra tomatoes (12 plants and counting) for the occasion! I’ll also put by anything that’s not tied down by the end of September! Can’t wait
Wish me luck! This is my first year and I will need all the advice I can get!
Last year reduced the courgettes with water in a pot added salt and pepper allowed to cool. Froze the mixture and had a great base for courgette soup. The ‘American’ courgettes are doing great this year.
The beetroot were topped and boiled. The resulting boiled juice I froze to make a soup ‘Borscht’ (Polish Beetroot soup) delicious with sour cream. Then after cooking the beetroot were peeled and used in a salad. A great food you can get 2 meals from them!
The rhubarb which we are harvesting again this weekend (2nd crop) my with will reduce with sugar and a small amount of water. Allow to cool and freeze, great in the winter for crumble.
I don’t how your off for water but here in North West of England, the water utility company are talking of a hose pipe ban
How will I cope?
I have a garden on the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest – and we are lucky to get enough heat units in a summer to grow anything resembling a red tomato or an ear of corn. Well, last year, it got crazy hot and I was inundated with corn, tomatoes, and after I realized I had planted NOT 6 cukes and 6 zucchinis, but ALL zucchinis, you can guess I was redefining what is meant by “world domination.” I froze a lot of corn – and then not wanting to waste anything, made corncob jelly (which is very “corny”), made a few dozen loaves of zucchini bread, which I froze, and since we still had loads of green tomatoes by the end of summer, ended up canning green tomato mincemeat. I posted some recipes at http://barbolian.com/green-tomato-mincemeat/ and http://barbolian.com/harvest-abundance/ , along with a few creative ideas of what to do when you are overcome with abundance!
Canning for the first time is one of my 2010 goals. I got the garden in (another goal) and am now composting (another goal), so canning is next. I’d like to put up tomatoes, so we don’t have to use store tomatoes anymore. I’d also like to make some chutneys. We love chutneys and have trouble buying them in our area. And I’d like to make strawberry jam, our family favorite!
My favorite is salsa, using tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, and cilantro from my garden. If I can ever get it together to grow onions and garlic it will be 100% home grown!
Margaret,
I want to win!!! Please pick my name Mr. Random name drawer!
Thank you,
Brenda
Dyer, IN
Hi. Love your website. Thanks for all of the great tips. I am hoping to can/preserve tomatoes, cukes, zukes and herbs. Thanks!
I freeze maters and make jam out of the fruit. This year I have
already pickled beets with quail eggs and THEY ARE TO DIE
FOR. Pickles if the cukes go wild.
My CSA, ( Commonground Farm, in Beacon, NY) has increased the share size;
I am having a hard time eating up all that great produce in a week! I am sure that
pickling and canning are the way to go.
I grew a ton of basil from seed this year in hopes of making enough pesto to freeze in cubes and eat for 11 months. The poor seedlings look pathetic, thanks to the Junuary we’ve had in the Pacific Northwest. But they’re hanging on, as am I, hoping for lots of July sun and the smell of warm basil in August.
I have had a lot of success processing fresh basil, then putting two cups in a small freezer bag topping with virgin olive oil(approx. 1/4 c.) work into a log, remove excess air, seal and freeze.
I oven roast and freeze my tomatoes. Intense flavor.
THE ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED (SINCE MIDNIGHT 6/24). Thank you all for joining in; so many great tips.
As those of you know who are regulars, I normally welcome all first-time commenters individually, but if do that during these contests, I’d have so many comments myself I’d probably win the drawing. :) So…a big group “welcome” to:
Sandra, Becca, Gerrie, Lorna, Jason, Lee, Lisa, Michele, Collette, Janie, Sharon, Mary , Linda, Lynn B., Michelle, Beth, Rubena, Jim, Michele, Aranyazu, MaryAnne, Spring Ivy, Georgia N., Jen, Corinne, Jenny, Blythe, Kerstin, Virginia, Sara, Kari and Andrea. I hope these will be the first of many comments from each of you. Don’t be shy!
AND THE WINNERS ARE…
I use the easy and fun “random number generator” tool on random dot org to pick the winners for my contests, and today’s lucky commenters are: first-time canner/preserver Mary Callahan, and repeat offender (tee hee) AmyD, who does everything from freezing fruits for smoothies to stashing roasted tomatoes and pestos galore.
Congratulations to both of you; this topic will resurface as the season continues, so stay tuned. There may even be more books to be had! Thanks to all for participating, as ever.
One of my girlfriends and I canned -pickled asparagus, cauliflower, and regular pickles
Welcome, Judy. I have never pickled asparagus (it doesn’t last long enough here to be “put up”!). Nice to see you, and don’t be a stranger.
My favorite is rhubarb jelly I’m addicted to it even in the winter I just grab a container out of the freezer and have a wonderful peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I also like to make sauerkraut and can it for later use.
too busy edging (as per your earlier article!) and using all that wonderful mulch from Byron Clough you recommended to enter the contest by deadline. Since I have a pinched nerve in my back, my poor husband follows me around with the edger and I show him where to make the edges! I freeze a wonderful rhubarb strawberry gallette filling (can’t master the gallette though) that uses ginger, maple syrup, and balsamic vinegar. it is great over fage yoghurt or vanilla ice cream. I had hoped to pickle beets but a little critter seemed to get into my vegetable garden and decimated most of my beet greens and lettuce. oh well. thanks for a wonderful newsletter. Looking forward to seeing your gardens when you have your open house this summer. thanks again for the wonderful recommendation Margaret, and of course all your great suggestions. Monica
Welcome, Monica. A lot of people locally are having vole problems — plants uprooted and crops being eaten. This seems to be a bumper vole year. Do you see any? My cat hunts and kills them pretty well, but I have also used mouse traps some years under baskets or pots (to keep other animals from getting in the traps).
Happy to help and glad the mulch worked well for you. Byron is great!
Welcome, Gerri. I have never had rhubarb jelly…sounds great. And freezer jam — easy, right? I have to go look up a recipe for this…thank you, and see you soon.
I make applesauce quite often in the past, and I now freeze the summer berries.
One of my passions is recipe books, and canning books. As far as I am concerned, you can’t have too many. I am always referring to my books. One of my first books, bought about 30 years ago, is ‘Stocking Up’. I love it and use it all the time. I didn’t even know there was a ‘Stocking up II’ or a ‘Stocking up III’. They are now on my wish list, and I will be searching for them. God bless
So many comments on Canning must be a form of nostolgia.
My new love is squash and am planting several new, to me, varieties that will store for a good amount of time. I also do a lot of canning and am wishing this weather would straighten up so I can get out there in the dirt.
I love your e-letters…….and I love all the great info you share. Some i have to collect in my word file. Thanks for being so generous!
Thank you for the opportunity to win those great freezer jars. I started canning the year after we married-44 years ago and continue to learn of new recipes and ideas. Nothing goes to waste here-love the feel of looking in the cupboards and seeing what we have grown and preserved. I’m reminded of a “Depression Era” quote-”Use it up, wear it out. Make do or do without”. I try to follow that as much as possible.
On my way to a Master Preservets Class! So excited! Would put these books to great use! Th.k you!
What an outstandingly thoughtful giveaway!!!
Love your site, the knowledge I’ve gained, will promulgate to others that NEED to know these things. Happy life!!
So glad I found this site! I am getting back into the canning scene growing my own small garden this year and so excited about it!
Love your website! Ive been canning for weeks now! Garlic dills, Hot peppers, triple berry jam, bread and butter pickles with and without jalapenos, pickled beets, hoping for peach jam and tomato sauce soon! Great giveaway for the home gardener!!!
I’m going to be freezing some green beans later today. I’ll also can some tomatoes, peaches, apples in different ways, and maybe even some other vegetables if they are ready in my Parents garden when I can get up there to help Mom with it. (I don’t have a pressure canner myself, but Mom does, so I only do fruit or pickles at home.)
I garden both on the home place and at the community garden I established in Salem, IL two years ago. Produce not given to the needy in my area are preserved or eaten fresh. To date I have blackberry jam, blackberries frozen, bread and butter pickles, bazil and other herbs frozen in water cubes or in oil, dehydrated onions and garlic as well as dehydrated peaches -those that were not pickled or made into peach/jalapeno jam. The hot peppers go into Pepper Jelly or they are frozen for poppers later this fall. Some onions and garlic are braded and hanging in a shaded shed. Tomatoes are made into salsa, frozen and some dehydrated. Green tomatoes will make chow chow later this fall. Retirement has me busier than when I taught in CA. I love your site and will soon be making your refrigerator pickles, cukes willing.
Since I live in Florida my canning from my spring garden is finished. I am at that point that I am reflecting on how to have a better fall garden. The fall garden and spring garden are all canned and froze in the same year. I use he articles on the website during the summer (when it is too hot down here for much gardening) to make plans for the next year. I love the site. I could use the books for references.